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Thursday, 28 January 2016

Free Motion Mavericks - Week 78 - A Hundred Squares

Deceptively simple, but arranging the colours took ages. I have decided to make some cradle quilts with 100 squares and piece the tops with my 100 year old Singer 99K to celebrate its centenary. I have had to put images of 100 year old babies out of my mind and content myself with the fact that a baby could celebrate 100 days at a little over three months.

I have had these lovely pinks and greens for a while and have been waiting for the right project to use them.

The pink binding with the neutral shaded roses works really well...

...especially on the back with the rabbits.Meanwhile, on the experimental front...

... look, no frills! Not much progress since last week, but enough to know that trying thermal curtain lining for landscapes was indeed a good idea.

Not that I am in the landscape frame of mind. The weather has been such rubbish that I was considering doing a study in grey, but today I thought I would have a go at an industrial scene, complete with jerry-built chimneys. Definitely a sketch and not the real thing.

Here goes for week 78...

The post in Week 77 that really caught my eye was Maartje's experiments with thread, especially this feather quilted in metallic thread. If you haven't seen her blog post yet, nip over now and see more photos.

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:-1. Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.

2. Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.3. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.4. The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight GMT for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.So far quilters from the USA, England, Wales, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, France and Macau have taken part. The first participant from each new country will get a special mention the following week.Linking up to Kelly's blog My Quilt Infatuationfor Needle and Thread Thursdayand Michelle's Romantic Tanglefor Let's Make Baby Quiltsand Sarah's blog Confessions of a Fabric Addictfor Whoop Whoop Fridayand Nina-Marie's blog Creations... Quilts, Art... Whateverfor Off The Wall Fridayand Amanda Jean's blog Crazy Mom Quiltsfor Finish It Up Friday.

I have to say that your experiment intrigues me. Those quilting lines are about as close as anyone would ever want to get and there are indeed no frills at the edges. What makes me curious though is how to apply this to quilting? Will you apply the thermal lining between the quilt top and backing so you can quilt close, or are you thinking of dying the thermal lining and using it as the quilt top so you can quilt close?

Hello Jennifer,It is just two layers, and it is a thread picture rather than a quilt. The thermal lining has a fluffy back, so the two fluffy sides are put facing each other, so there is no need for a third layer.

Dunelm sounds like a good bet. I get mine from a local curtain shop, so I'm not sure what Dunelm stock. In the past I have seen some fairly flexible lining which probably drapes well for curtains. This is the stiff stuff, far better for this work.